Possibly the thing I like most about construction school is the rigid certainty of geometry. The math is pure; the numbers add up. After years of writing, noodling with subjective words and fickle fiction, it's nice to tangle with right angles and right answers. But that was not the case today. Today, Polly and I had to … Continue reading No Right Answers

This week, we built a practice roof system. First step was to build a wall 18 inches high that would function as the top walls of a house. Then we learned how to measure and cut rafters, which is fascinating and requires uncomfortable geometry and old-school tools. Pythagoras is involved. It makes my brain hurt. Pablo … Continue reading The Week in Pics, Vol. IX

When I started keeping hens in the backyard a few years ago, I began to realize how many expressions draw their meaning from the life of poultry. Hen-pecked, brooding, pecking order, cooped up....Once you start to pay attention, the list is endless. Now that I have turned my focus to construction, I realize how many words of … Continue reading Building Words for the Birds

This week, our class was tasked with building wooden boxes in which students will deposit cell phones upon arriving at school. We can have our phones back at lunch and again at the end of the day. It's a commonsense solution to the problem of cell phones in the classroom; nonetheless, constructing the boxes was akin … Continue reading Hold the Phone

Chapter 7 of Carpentry Fundamentals: Level One, the section on roofing, is all my geometry nightmares come to life. Rise, run, slope. Shudder, cringe, despair. Just about the time the instructor was explaining how to use a framing square to determine the difference in length between a common rafter and the first hip or valley jack, Polly whispered to … Continue reading Over My Head

There comes a time in the life of a Nashville child when he or she asks for a guitar. Today was that day in our family. The choices were seemingly endless, but Nick at Guitar Center helped us narrow our search quickly, with one criteria for a beginner instrument: a solid top. "I don't know … Continue reading Good Vibrations

Eight weeks into Building Construction Technology class it's starting to feel like Montessori for adults, with "stations" dedicated to projects such as tearing out drywall, installing cabinetry, and sketching framing plans and elevations. I find myself torn between fine- and gross-motor skills, floating from drafting to demolition in any given afternoon. A few highlights of the … Continue reading The Week in Pictures, Volume VIII

The guys in construction class, most of whom have four-letter names, do not know my name. I discovered this today--eight weeks into the program--when they wrote a list of assignments on the board with "Polly & Co." in charge of drafting the tiny office plans. To be fair, we all knew exactly who that meant. My sister Polly … Continue reading In Good Company

The first week of construction school, I was so amped up on handy self-reliance that I learned to fix a leaky bathtub faucet. So this weekend, when a bathroom sink leaked all over my stash of tiny hotel soaps and sewing kits, I thought it would be a simple fix. Not so. Feeling rather smug in my new … Continue reading Plumb and Plumber

Just as I was digging into Chapter 7 of that gripping page-turner Carpentry Fundamentals: Level One, the section on roof framing, I stumbled upon a creative repurposing of roofing material. The holiday ornaments pictured here are made from what the textbook refers to as "waterproof underlayment." In construction, this layer—often tar paper or asphalt-saturated felt—gets applied to sheathing to keep moisture out … Continue reading Up on the Rooftop